Call of Duty: NEXT LIVE — All Black Ops 7 announcements, beta news, and more as it happened

Buckle up! Call of Duty: NEXT's livestream kicks off in a little more than 10 minutes. Players who connect their Activision accounts to their Twitch or YouTube accounts and watch COD NEXT broadcasts for a minimum of one hour will receive early access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta, starting on October 2.

Early access to the beta can also be unlocked by preordering Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 — both the standard or the vault edition unlock access — or by subscribing to Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass. — Cole Martin, contributor

COD Next has officially kicked off and we've started with a list of multiplayer maps that are coming to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta starting October 2:

• The Forge
• Cortex
• Exposure
• Imprint
• Blackheart
• Toshin

Black Ops 7 will launch with 18 maps: 16 for the classic 6v6 multiplayer modes and two for the brand new 20v20 Skirmish multiplayer experience.

While the majority of the maps are new, there are three returning Black Ops 2 maps at launch, as well, for that nostalgia flare we all crave. — Cole Martin, contributor

Players are getting their first look at live gameplay in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The first match is Team Deathmatch on the map Blackheart.

Central to the gameplay is Black Ops 7's enhancements to the Omnimovement system that launched with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last year. Omnimovement made it possible for players to jump and slide in any direction, and also introduced supine prone movement.

Next-level Omnimovement for Black Ops 7 includes the new wall jump, increased base movement speed, and refined core movement.

We also see tac-sprint, which was previously introduced with the Modern Warfare series, make its exit from the player kit. Players who want to move even faster will need to sacrifice one of their perk slots for additional sprinting. The animation for tac-sprint has also been reworked. It longer holds the player's weapon in the air, obstructing their view while on the move. — Cole Martin, contributor

The Treyarch team are taking a moment to break down Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's new overclocking system, which will allow players to level up equipment like lethals, tacticals, field upgrades and scorestreaks that they use frequently.

Overclocked equipment can provide new game-changing upgrades to the player. The D.A.W.G. scorestreak, for example, can be upgraded to include better battery life which keeps it on the field for longer, or to go into a sentry mode with a trophy system which makes it excellent at holding points in objective modes. — Cole Martin, contributor

Players jumping into Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's beta will have access to six different multiplayer modes, including Overload, which is brand new to the series.

All available beta modes include:

• Overload
• Team Deathmatch
• Domination
• Hardpoint
• Kill Confirmed
• Search and Destroy

While Kill Confirmed and Search and Destroy will be in the beta, content creators will not have access to showcase those modes during COD Next's live event. — Cole Martin, contributor

Classic prestige returns to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with all new cross-progression system that spans all of BO7's modes, including the brand-new co-op campaign and Dead Ops Arcade 4.

Each mode will have its own set of mastery camos for weapons — 16 new mastery camos to unlock in all. That's the most ever for any Call of Duty title. Each mode will also offer calling card challenges. Season 1 will introduce weekly challenges and the new quality of life feature to re-roll daily challenges. — Cole Martin, contributor

The Call of Duty team has now taken the stage to showcase Ashes of the Damned, the first chapter of the zombies mode for Black Ops 7. Ashes of the Damned is a round-based zombies experience with a dedicated crew featuring Maya, Weaver, Carver, and Grey as they become trapped in the dark aether.

The OG zombies crew featuring Richtofen, Nikolai, Takeo, and Dempsey will also be playable characters and a part of the Ashes of the Damned storyline.

Zombies mode will feature three modes at launch: Standard round-based maps with a main quest and special completion awards. Survival will push players to stay alive in a confined section on a smaller map — Vandorn Farm on Survival will be available in the open beta and showcased next during COD NEXT.

Cursed mode, a new hardcore challenge draws on classic Zombies gameplay by having players start with a pistol and no loadouts, no minimap, and the classic point system.

For those of us who need a little more handholding during Zombies, Directed Mode will return in Black Ops 7 but we will have to wait until Season 1 for the Ashes of the Damned guided experience. — Cole Martin, contributor

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Zombies mode will feature a couple new terrifying creepy crawlies when you join for the Black Ops 7 beta. Among the new beasts are the ravagers and even a new zombie bear that will make climbing the rounds and completing easter eggs a challenge.

That's not all that is new for Ashes of the Damned, however. A brand-new Wonder Weapon — er, Wonder Vehicle, rather — is joining the team as your defacto fifth member of the squad. Ol' Tessie, a broken-down farm trucks, becomes an upgradeable, repairable means of transportation through the Ashes of the Damned experience.

A new wonder weapon, the Necrofluid Gauntlet, is also part of Ashes of the Damned, though we won't see any gameplay featuring the wonder weapon during COD Next.

T.E.D.D., the former bus driver from Black Ops 2's TranZit mode, returns to Zombies as an aid to the squad and can assist with Ol' Tessie. — Cole Martin, contributor

Dead Ops Arcade — one of my personal favorite modes in the Black Ops series — is set to return with DOA4 in Black Ops 7. For the first time ever, the game-within-a-game-within-a-game-within-a-game is set to feature ammo mods, field upgrades, and GobbleGums.

Both top-down and first-person perspective options will be playable in the co-op retro-inspired zombies horde mode that will feature 80 levels across more than 20 new arenas. — Cole Martin, contributor

Call of Duty: Warzone time! Welcome to Haven's Hollow, a brand new map coming to Warzone's Resurgence mode. Haven's Hollow draws inspiration from Black Ops 6's fan-favorite Zombies map, Liberty Falls, and takes the battle straight to the heart of Appalachia. (Apple-atchya. If you pronounce it appuh-laysha — I'll throw an apple atchya!)

Haven's Hollow will feature 9 POIs, and including the Mansion that was a set piece for Black Ops 6's Shattered Veil zombies chapter. — Cole Martin, contributor

New Warzone Map - Haven's Hollow Flythrough | Call of Duty: Warzone - YouTube

Watch On

Call of Duty: Warzone will also see some gameplay updates with Black Ops 7 weapon integration, though those weapons will be limited to five attachments only. Raven Software will also make a balancing pass for all attachments when the integration takes place.

While wildcards are returning for Black Ops 7 multiplayer, they will be removed for Warzone with BO7 integration. Rather than players being forced to sacrifice their wildcard slot for Overkill — the card that allows players to carry two primary weapons, as was previously Warzone's standard prior to Black Ops 6 integration — two primary weapons will once again be the norm.

Baseline sprint speeds will also be increased, and similar to Multiplayer, tac sprint will be removed from default settings. However, players who do insist on moving faster can sacrifice a perk slot for it. The new combat roll mechanic will also make its way to the perk system, though it will be rolled in with the current Mountaineer perk.

Some equipment will be removed from Warzone, while new equipment like the needle drone lethal, phantom signal and pinpoint grenade tacticals will replace what is removed.

Expect some changes to ground loot, as well, with better ground loot littering the battlefield offering more linear rarity that takes the random out of gameplay. Attachments like extended mags are more likely to be found in lower rarity weapons to balance combat.

Ground loot is also expected to undergo seasonal changes following Black Ops 7 integration. "Stealth" seasons could see more suppressor play, for example. — Cole Martin, contributor

Call of Duty NEXT gets a big reveal moment. Earlier this year, a screenshot of the map Avalon was revealed during an official COD POD episode. While fans speculated that the screenshot was indicative that Avalon could come to Call of Duty: Warzone as the new 'big map', replacing Verdansk, COD POD hosts and the development team waved the speculation off, claiming it was a screenshot of the campaign endgame map.

COD POD hosts returned to the stage during Call of Duty NEXT to announce they hadn't been entirely truthful during that moment. More details to come on Avalon and the return of Blackout. — Cole Martin, contributor

COD Mobile is currently taking over the NEXT stage, celebrating six years of Call of Duty on mobile with a new Anniversary Season. Mobile players can look forward to night maps Hackney, Crash, and Summit when they return to CODM in Season 10.

Popular Call of Duty operator Mythic Ghost is also making a come back, available on CODM starting October 23 with Season 9.

While classic Call of Duty has struggled with player backlash over collaborative skins, CODM seems to be immune from the problem as it announces a new crossover event with WWE during Season 9. — Cole Martin, contributor

That's a wrap on Call of Duty NEXT 2025! There's plenty more details and developer interviews headed our way in the coming days as Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's multiplayer beta goes live.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches on November 14 on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation. Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers get instant access on Day One as part of the subscription to the service, as well as early access to the multiplayer and zombies beta content. — Cole Martin, contributor

What we expected from COD NEXT

COD NEXT is the ultimate place to be if you are a Call of Duty creator. Collaborations go down in the elevators on the way to lunch. Friendships are made on the shuttle to the venue, and enemyships are forged in the streaming pit.

For those fans at home, COD NEXT is your chance to kick back and tune in to your favorite streamers to finally get a proper first look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's multiplayer gameplay, Zombies mode, and find out details on what changes are coming to Call of Duty: Warzone.

Based on past Call of Duty NEXT experiences, we expected a few things to be shown during the event:

More than 250 content creators and members of the press are live from the streaming venue. In addition to the creators on-site, Activision has also selected additional creators to host Watch Parties on various streaming platforms.

Connect your favorite streaming platform, such as Twitch or YouTube, to your Activision account and watch any COD NEXT live stream for one hour to receive an early access beta code for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

• Multiplayer gameplay: Professional content creators, esports players, and members of the press will take each other on in a curated multiplayer experience.
• Weapon and loadout deep dives: Treyarch and Raven Software will likely introduce the arsenal at players' disposal in Black Ops 7 and talk about the vast changes coming to perks.
• Season 1 plans for BO7 x Call of Duty: Warzone: Quality of life improvements, changes to movement, and maybe even a new map?
• Zombies, zombies, zombies: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's zombies mode has had a growth spurt since its predecessor. Expect to learn more about the new TranZit-inspired map and the return of Survival.
• RICOCHET anti-cheat: Call of Duty's proprietary anti-cheat is now required to have TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enabled prior to the open beta on October 2.